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We biked up to Reston Town Center today to see the latest Harry Potter movie. It was only 4 miles from where the W&OD trail crosses Hunter Mill (where we parked and unloaded the bikes), so it wasn’t as much of a workout as our past two bike trips. Next time, I think we’ll start from downtown Vienna, which will add a couple miles to each leg of the trip.
Total miles: 8.0
I’ve been trying to think of fun bike trips that Andrew and I can make — like going to Hole in the Wall Books in Falls Church (we were about a block from there, as it turns out, when we stopped and turned around last weekend).
In last week’s Sunday Source, there was a blurb on a fun-looking mini-golf course in Herndon. We decided to look at our VA bike trails map, and see if there was a way to get there by bike. We found something promising and it was going to be about 7 miles each way if we started from the point on the W&OD trail where it crosses Hunter Mill Road. Andrew was concerned that I’d be able to make that, but I reminded him that besides being stubborn, we would be stopping and taking a break after the first half, so I should be fine.
So, we put the bikes on the car, and headed up. I noticed that I was going fairly slow much of the way (8-9 mph), so was concerned that last week was just a fluke, but later realized that the entire trip out was on an incline. It was a small incline, but incline none-the-less. Our plan was to follow the W&OD up to Wiehle Avene, then take Wiehle to Baron Cameron, Baron Cameron to the Reston Parkway, and the REston Parkway to Drainsville. That would have at least gotten us close.
Well, the sidewalk on both sides of the road disappeared from Wiehle just after North Shore Drive (the second time we crossed it, because it’s a big loop around Lake Anne). So we decided to take the North Shore Drive to see where it would take us.
It took us to a farmers market and craft sale in a little shopping area around Lake Anne. Cool! We locked up the bikes, found Reston’s Used Book Shop, browsed the crafts, bought some kettle corn, and sat by the lake. It was a very pleasant morning diversion.
When we left, we continued around North Shore Drive (spotting Baron Cameron Avenue just outside the farmers market), and headed back to the car. Total miles: 9. It’s not as far as last weekend, but the way was much, much more hilly. In fact, I made it up two hills I never thought I’d make…cool!
Andrew and I decided to go out for a bike ride this morning. We haven’t been out since a particularly nice day in February. It seems that the nice weekends of late have been taken up with wedding stuff, so our bikes have languished in the shed for the last two months.
We drove up with the bikes to the Washington & Old Dominion trail (W&OD) in Vienna, and headed off to the south/east (for the first part of the trip, it’s mostly a gradual uphill — the benefit of going this way first is that on the way back, when we’re already getting tired, the way is mostly downhill). My original goal was to go at least 8 miles — that’s how far we went in February. We ended up going a total of 10 miles round-trip! This is a definite improvement over last year.
When we got back to our car, I bookcrossed one of my books at the caboose along the trail.
The forecast for today was wonderful — mid 60s and sunny. We decided to take advantage of that by biking into Vienna for the antique show and lunch.
I’m so proud of myself, too. Last year at this time I was barely able to go a mile before making us turn around home. Today, the first time out this year, we biked a total of 8.5 miles! (3.5 miles into town, a couple miles to go from the show to lunch to Michael’s, and another 3.5 miles home) And, frankly, I could have gone further.
Yay!
It was 36 degrees (F) when we got up, which was just a bit cold for me, but we waited until the sun came up before we went. I’m thinking that this will be our last bike ride of the year — I was chilled. I know that some people like the feeling of cold air in their lungs as they exercise outside on a cold day. However, I find it painful. I had learned this long ago about myself when my family used to cross-country ski in the woods behind our house, but in my long years trying to forget winter, I had forgotten. Oh well, the bike ride was fun anyway. It was good to get out one last time.
It’s been a few weeks since we’ve been out on the bikes. I do bike about four times a week on our stationary bike, but of course it’s not the same. I started to get disappointed on this ride, because I found myself tiring out after just a couple miles. Just six weeks ago I was ready to do the WABA 12 mile ride, and today I could barely do a few miles. In the end, we did 5 miles.
Then I started to think about it more, and recalled that when we started biking this spring, I was barely able to do 2 miles. So, frankly, if 5 miles is now a “bad day”, I think I can be pretty darned proud of that.
Andrew and I decided to go the “other way” on the W & OD trail today. Usually when we park in Vienna, we’ve been heading up toward Reston, but today we decided to head south/east toward Falls Church. Unfortunately we only made 6.5 miles total — there is a fairly large hill just after we pass inside the beltway, and I didn’t think I could make it. As it turns out, though, the trip home from there must have been mostly downhill, because I could have kept going.
Just after we passed back outside the beltway, I got a nasty shock. A bee flew directly into my ear! It bounced around for a moment (I stuck my finger around my ear, too, which didn’t help!), and then stung me and flew away. I really hope it’s one of those bees that dies after stinging! My ear was throbbing for the rest of the trip back to Vienna. The wind rushing past my ear just make things worse. It’s just a good thing that I’m not allergic.
Since Maggie and Jim have recently taken up mountain biking, I thought we could go for a bike ride while Maggie was here. We rented her a bike at Spokes, Etc. in Vienna, and went for about 4 miles up the W&OD trail (Washington and Old Dominion — an old railroad that was turned into a bike trail). Maggie quite enjoyed being able to go fast, since usually she’s going up and down so much that she can just take off. We reached 17 mph on a straight away, and on our way back down a hill, we got up to 26 mph!
This evening we had tickets for The Reduced Shakespeare Company ‘s All the Great Books at the Kennedy Center. I’d seen RSC’s Shakespeare performance on PBS last year, so I was really looking forward to tonight’s performance. I was not disappointed!
Picture of Andrew and me on the viewing deck of the Kennedy Center, with the Lincoln memorial in the background:
Yay! We finally got to take our bike trip to Alexandria. It’s somewhat difficult for us to plan bike trips for now, since I’m not able to go great distances. The two books Andrew has of bike rides in the DC area start at about 7 miles, which I could do, if they weren’t all listed as “hilly”. The rides quickly get longer. But we cut one of the trips in half, by not returning to our starting point. We can do this because Metro allows bikes on the trains during off-peak hours. (That’s me on the train…trying to ignore the fact that Andrew is taking a picture.)
The path we’d chosen was a total of about 7.5 miles, but with getting to the Metro, getting from the Metro to the start of the path, etc. I put a total of 10.6 miles on my bike (plus a bit more, because the sensor for my bike’s computer jiggled out of alignment for a bit – read great post here about that). Next time I’ll try to enjoy the scenery a bit more — the path goes right along the Potomac, with a great view of the Lincoln and Washington Memorials, as well as the Kennedy Center, and I may have caught a glimpse of the capitol in there too. Unfortunately the rechargeable batteries I bought with my new camera suck, and I couldn’t take any pictures (the picture of me on the Metro drained the batteries completely…that and the pictures of Felicia, the PhD Candidate bear, were the only pictures I’d taken on this recharging.)
I’m looking forward to getting out again soon!
The forecast for today was 95 degrees (F). So, Andrew and I decided that we ought to get started pretty early on our little bike trip, to avoid the worst heat of the day. I was bustling around the kitchen at about 8 AM to get our water bottles filled and ready to go, when something occurred to me:
Setback #1: Andrew’s bike was still at the bike shop.
They had promised us the bike by Friday (today), so we rearranged our plans to arrive at the bike shop at 10 AM (when they opened) and pick up his bike. I made Andrew drive me around in the new (to us) car, to give him some more practice, and we messed around the house for a bit. Then we headed off to the bike shop.
Setback #2: The bike shop had no paperwork on his bike, and consequently didn’t know what state the tune-up was in.
The guy behind the counter asked us to give him an hour to give the bike a once-over to just make sure everything looked good. In the meantime, Andrew and I walked around “downtown” Vienna — passing through the crafters setting up for the 4th of July doings and grabbing a small lunch at Whole Foods. At about 11:15 AM we returned, picked up Andrew’s bike and headed home. From there, we biked up to the Vienna Metro stop.
Setback #3: Bikes aren’t allowed on the Metro on the 4th of July.
Well, that one was a deal-breaker, so we decided to just bike around Vienna. Of course, the road we picked was probably the most hilly road in town, but I’m proud to say that I actually made it up each and every hill without dismounting (though I may have slowed to a crawl). We ended up back by the “doings”, so after grabbing a frozen chai drink from Starbucks, we walked back through the crafts, and I picked up a couple little somethings.
When we got back home, we had put about 7 miles on the bikes — my longest ride so far (though that’s likely to change later this weekend).
I finally made it up to Vienna this weekend on my bike! Yay!
Andrew and I set off about about 10AM to downtown Vienna. We started at the library so Andrew could drop off his previous batch of books and pick up a new one. I decided to read at a bench outside the library, not wanting to sit my sweaty body on the library’s cloth chairs.
Then we headed up to Once Upon A Time, a toy store on Church Street, where I picked up a few more dollhouse things (a bunk bed, two dressers and a toy chest, all for the kids’ room in my dollhouse). I dragged Andrew into Terra Christa, a new-age-y type store not too far from the toy shop.
I was getting nibbly for lunch by then, but feared that eating too much would prevent me from riding the 3 miles back home. We decided to try the Knossoss restaurant, where we each had a panini — mine was quite yummy.
Once home, I was quite exhausted, but happy that I’d finally made it into town. Oh, and I was able to make it up the hill on Courthouse both coming and going, which is amazing for me. Yay!
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